


The Uncanny X-Gwen

by lilacsigil



Category: Gwen Variants (Marvel Comics Covers), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Gen, Multiple Selves, Mutant Powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 04:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5482625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsigil/pseuds/lilacsigil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gwen Stacy is on a high school trip to Oscorp's science division when she unexpectedly acquires superpowers. Not spider powers, but the X-Men's mutant powers. All of them. Now, if only she can pull herself together...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Uncanny X-Gwen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenofspade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/gifts).



"Look, Peter! These genetically enhanced spiders are awesome!" Gwen didn't quite touch the glass, since she didn't want to scare them, but she got as close as she could. 

Peter managed to wriggle out of the crowd of students, neatly avoiding Flash Thompson's attempt to give him a passing wedgie, and join her at the display. "Wow, those web patterns are amazing! Are these the ones that weave human hair?"

"No, I think these are the super fast ones." Gwen read the label. "Yeah, these are the speedy spiders. The human hair spiders are over there next to the pancreatic enzyme spiders."

Peter shuddered. "I don't mind spiders, but I don't know if I'd want to wear a web on my head."

"Hey, see if you say that in forty years! Maybe you'll have a shiny dome to hide by then!" Gwen laughed, then stopped as a bright flash of light startled everyone.

A booming voice rang out. "Cower, puny humans, and make way for the Master of Magnetism!"

Gwen pulled Peter behind the display case. 

"That's Magneto!" Peter squeaked, unnecessarily. 

"Stay down!" Gwen still peeked, though. The purple-clad supervillain was hovering mid-air near a chart about the enhanced spiders, and a steel box with an Oscorp sticker was floating by his side. Magneto turned and for a moment Gwen thought he was looking at her, but no, he was staring past her, out toward the door to the rest of Oscorp.

"I know you're coming, you fools!" he declaimed, then muttered, "Pitting Colossus and Wolverine against me? Ridiculous."

The X-Men made a rather less dramatic entry, as Magneto picked up the big metal guy and threw him into the rest of the group. There was a strange puffing noise and a smell of sulphur, and the cute blue X-Man with the tail appeared right above Magneto.

Magneto couldn't throw him as easily, and blue guy dropped down to cling to Magneto's shoulders and cover his eyes with a swiftly applied tail. 

"Curse you!" Magneto yelled, and Gwen rather wished that the blue guy – Nightcrawler, she remembered – had covered his mouth, too. Magneto was pretty loud for an old guy. 

Nightcrawler's attack seemed to be effective, though, as Magneto clawed at him and the serene mid-air glide turned into a radical darting wobble. He hit a wall, then a tank of spiders, which cracked, and the box he'd been carrying fell right in front of Gwen with a loud thud. 

She reached out and pulled it towards herself and Peter: if a supervillain were trying to steal whatever was in the box, surely it would be a good thing to keep it away from him.

Peter poked her in the arm. "Gwen, what are you doing? It could be explosives!" 

"If it was, wouldn't it have gone off when he dropped it?" Magneto was desperately trying to break Nightcrawler's grip and simultaneously shooting off electrical zaps. "Also, I don't think he need explosives."

"Storm, now!" Nightcrawler yelled, and vanished with that weird noise. 

"That stinks," Peter muttered. 

A tiny tornado swept through the room, throwing Magneto up high away from the students. It was followed with some kind of red laser bolt, hitting him in the chest and throwing him into the cracked spider case. He slid slowly down the case, his helmet gone, and hit the floor directly opposite Gwen and Peter. 

Gwen tried to quickly hide the box behind her, where Magneto wouldn't see it, but she was too slow. 

"That's mine, girl!" he rasped out, and the box launched itself towards him. Gwen hung on and was pulled right along with it, landing in a heap by Magneto's side. 

"Do not harm that child!" A woman's voice this time, powerful and angry, and a lightning bolt lit the room. Magneto held up his arms and blue energy flashed away from him, right into Gwen. She felt her body arc up off the floor and a strange sensation like she was being pulled in all directions.

"Gwen!" Peter shouted, and that was the last thing she heard. 

When Gwen woke up, she was lying on a hospital bed and a bald man was sitting next to her in a wheelchair. 

"Hello?" she said, and it came out all wrong. Her voice was wrong. Everything was wrong. She felt all heavy in her limbs, as if she had a bad cold. "Where…who are you?"

"Hello, Miss Stacy. My name is Professor Xavier and you've had an unfortunate accident for which my X-Men are, sadly, partially responsible. I apologise on their behalf, and I assure you that we will be doing everything possible to restore you to your normal self."

"My…normal self?" Gwen cleared her throat, trying to sound normal again. It didn't work. "Uh, Professor, what exactly happened?"

Someone nearby screamed, a girl's voice. Gwen sat up to see what was happening. There was a girl sitting in the next bed, dark blue like Nightcrawler, but with blonde hair about the same length as Gwen's. 

"Oh my god!" the girl said. "You're me!" She was staring at Gwen, so Gwen automatically glanced down at herself to see why the blue girl thought they looked alike. She didn't seem any different, as far as she could tell, and definitely not blue. The backs of her hands were itchy and a bit red, though. Maybe she'd gotten a first-degree burn from the lightning bolt.

"No, I don't think so," Gwen told her, but by then the girl had seen her strange, three-fingered hands and was screaming more. 

"Really, I don't think that's necessary," the Professor said, sternly. "Miss Stacy, meet Miss Stacy."

"What?" both girls chorused. 

"Miss Stacy, there are now five of you."

Apart from the blue girl, there were three more girls in the other beds, still asleep, and they were all Gwen. One was very tall and impressively buff. The next seemed no different except for a bandage across her eyes. The last also looked the same, except that her hair was stirring gently in her sleep as if there was a light breeze, which there wasn't. The air was still in here. 

"Okay. Okay. I'm okay. You're okay?" she asked the blue Gwen. 

"I'm blue!" she said, faintly. "But I do have a tail, that's kind of cool." She wiggled it out from under the sheet and pointed it at Gwen. "What did you get?"

"I don't know!" Gwen flexed her hands. They definitely felt weird. She wiggled one wrist a bit and all of a sudden three great big knives popped out of her hand. "Ow! Shit! Knives! Ow!" 

The professor, who was in a wheelchair, had rapidly moved away. "Please be careful, Miss Stacy. The X-Men have trained to use their powers without hurting themselves or anyone else, but you don't have that training. We can only hope that we can restore you to your normal self soon."

"How do I make these things…oh." Gwen had tilted her hand up a bit and they slid back into her hands with a sort of "snackt" noise. "There they go."

Blue Gwen laughed. "I guess you're the Wolverine! I'm Nightcrawler! Cool!" 

The Professor sighed. "The other three Gwens are waking. I have telepathically filled them in on your situation. Please remain here in the infirmary until I have gathered the X-Men to show you how to prevent inadvertent injury." He wheeled over to the elevator and left. 

Gwen got out of bed. She still felt heavy, as if she was dragging herself around. She'd thought it must be a side-effect, but blue Gwen was doing a handstand on her bed. "Don't you feel all heavy and weird?"

"No!" She leapt off the bed with a mid-air somersault and landed neatly on her big weird feet. "I feel awesome! I mean, the hands are kind of hard to get used to, but I feel great!"

The buff Gwen woke up. "Ow. I guess I've got Colossus' powers, if I'm all giant and ripped." She flexed a big arm.

"You're definitely hot," blue Gwen assured her. 

"A fitspiration," Gwen added.

"Why are my eyes covered? Did I get Cyclops's power? He's got that visor thing, right? I'm not blind, am I?" 

Gwen hurried over to her bedside. "I don't think Cyclops is blind, though. Maybe everything looks creepy to him with those red eye lasers, like it's all covered in blood."

"Nasty. I guess I should leave the bandages on until they tell me. Hey, does Dad know where we are?"

"Oh my god," buff Gwen said, "He'll be freaking out. Do you think everyone from school is okay?"

"Does anyone have a phone?" blue Gwen asked. "I've just got this dumb hospital gown."

"Do you think that means we were naked?" Blindfolded Gwen clasped her hands together, her frown visible at the edge of the bandage. 

"Dude, gross, who put these gowns on us?" Buff Gwen didn't sound impressed with that thought, either. 

Blue Gwen counted them off. "So, Cyclops, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Wolverine – blades came out of her hands, it was cool. That means that the last one must be Storm. Do you think she's okay? She's not waking up."

"I'm awake," the last Gwen whispered. "But I feel really, really bad."

Blue Gwen leapt up to perch on the end of her bed like a gargoyle. "Bad how? Can we help?"

"I don't know. Um, everything is pressing in on me and I can feel too many things."

Gwen climbed into bed with her. "Here, move over. We'll snuggle, then you'll feel better." It was kind of strange hugging herself, but it was comforting all the same. The little breeze moving Storm Gwen's hair settled down. 

"Actually, that's great. Thanks. Don't take this the wrong way, but you're kind of heavy, though."

Gwen lifted one arm. "Yeah, I'd say it was the claws, but I feel heavy all over."

"Group hug!" blue Gwen declared, and helped blindfolded Gwen over to join in. Buff Gwen reached right over the top to hug everyone simultaneously. 

The elevator came down again and this time the Professor had the X-Men with him. Gwen couldn't help noticing how uncomfortable Storm looked. Looked and smelled? That was weird, to be able to smell how someone was feeling, but that's definitely what she was doing. She could hear their hearts beating too, and their breathing. 

Cyclops stepped forward. "Professor Xavier tells me that you're up to date on what happened at Oscorp?"

"Not really!" Blue Gwen wriggled over to perch on the foot of the bed again. "I mean, I can see the result, but what actually caused it? And does my dad know I'm okay?"

"Your father think you're safe at home," the Professor assured her. 

Blindfolded Gwen did not sound pleased. "You mean, you messed with his mind? Not cool!"

"It's a temporary solution until we can revert you to your normal selves. In any case, Captain Stacy is busy with the damage done to the Oscorp facility. Magneto escaped, but injured several employees on his way. A few of your classmates were also hurt, but not seriously."

"That's good." Blue Gwen nodded. "Was Peter okay? He's the guy with glasses who was right behind me."

Cyclops checked on a computer terminal. "He's listed as having minor injuries and has gone home."

"Oh good."

Buff Gwen interrupted. "So you think this won't last very long?"

The Professor steepled his fingers. "Events of this nature are usually self-limiting, but it's possible that the radioactive material that Magneto was stealing had something to do with the exchange of powers and attributes. As soon as we've made sure you're all right, we will to track him down and recover the stolen material."

"Sounds like a plan," blindfolded Gwen agreed. "Is there any chance I can get this blindfold off?"

Cyclops sighed. "You've got my powers, which means force beams that don't switch off. That's why I wear a visor. If you come with me, I'll take you to the Danger Room, where you can test the beams safely and we can fit you with a visor."

"The Danger Room?" the Gwens chorused. 

"It's just a nickname for where we train. You'll be the most dangerous thing there, I promise." Cyclops smiled. He took blindfolded Gwen's arm and led her out. 

"What's happening to me?" Storm Gwen asked, still huddled in her bed. Buff Gwen was stroking her hair, but she was still scared. 

"I'm so sorry," real Storm said, hurrying across to sit by her and taking her hand. "My abilities are very difficult to control, and I remember they were very disorienting at first. Perhaps if we go outside you might find it a little easier." 

Buff Gwen scooped the shaking Gwen up, but Storm directed them away from the elevator and out the opposite door to the stairs instead. 

"You ain't having any trouble," Wolverine told Gwen.

"Why are you so heavy, though?"

"Metal on my bones. Same as the claws."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense. That's a weird mutant power, though."

"That's not my mutant power. That was done to me."

Gwen shut her mouth. This was obviously something he wasn't happy talking about. 

Blue Gwen saved the awkward moment. "So, could we get some clothes? I've got this incredible urge to do backflips and I don't think that would be advisable in this gown in mixed company."

"Of course!" Nightcrawler somersaulted right over to blue Gwen. "Come up to the Danger Room – there's tracksuits that should fit you. Then…have you ever tried the trapeze?"

"You have a trapeze?" Blue Gwen crouched ready to do a backflip then and there, so Gwen grabbed her arm to stop her. "Let's go get changed, then acrobatics."

***

Gwen was finding it surprisingly difficult to get around blindfolded, even though Cyclops was guiding her carefully. She never realised how much she relied on visual information, and here she was walking smooth corridors with nothing to trip on.

"Did you have to wear a blindfold too?" she asked Cyclops, trying to take the attention off her short and stumbling steps.

"For a while, yeah. Every time I opened my eyes, I knocked down walls, so they taped my eyes shut for safety. They wanted to take my eyes out entirely, but there was no way to do that, luckily for me. Then the Professor found me and brought me here, where he worked out that a particular kind of red glass filtered the beams."

"So they're not lasers? I had a bet with my friend Peter."

Cyclops laughed. "Definitely not lasers! There's no heat and they don't cut. They're pure force. Now that you know, who won the bet?"

Gwen grimaced. "Peter did. But I'm still glad he's okay, even if I have to pay him all my fries next time they have them in the cafeteria."

"Okay, this is the locker room outside the Danger Room. Sit down here and I'll get you a tracksuit so you don't have to wander around in that gown." He pushed some clothing into her hands. "There's sneakers and socks on the bench next to you. I'll be getting the Danger Room ready. Call out when you're changed."

It was surprisingly creepy getting changed with no idea if anyone was watching her, even if it was good to be out of that flappy gown. The tracksuit was a little big and there was no bra with it, but she didn't want some guy she hardly knew judging her cup size anyway. It turned out that once she'd got organised she could tie her shoelaces without needing to see, which felt like a great achievement. 

"Hey, I'm done!" she yelled, and heard Cyclops returning. 

"This way," he said, taking her arm and leading her out into what must be a much bigger room, as their footsteps echoed loudly. He guided her to a chair, and stood behind her. 

"Your power probably won't hurt me, since my own power doesn't, but I'm standing out of the way for safety. I'll remove the bandages now, so when I've done that, keep facing forwards and open your eyes when you're ready."

"Am I going to blast a wall?"

"Yes, but the wall can take it."

He unwrapped the bandages from her eyes, and gently pulled off gauze pads that were taped in place. It wasn't very strong tape, and it didn't hurt, but she felt weirdly unclothed without the eye coverings. She wondered if Cyclops felt the same. 

"Open your eyes any time now, Gwen."

"Okay!" Now that she was focusing on it, Gwen could feel a weird kind of pressure behind her eyes, the same as a headache from staring at a screen too long, but it didn't hurt. She carefully opened her eyes and had a second to notice that everything did look red, as one of the other Gwens had guessed, before the beams shot forth from her eyes and blasted into a huge steel block. 

"Wow!" Gwen yelled! "Did you see that! Awesome!"

Cyclops sounded stunned. "Gwen, your eyes are still open."

"Yeah? Everything's still red, too."

"But you're not shooting eye beams."

"No, I stopped them. But I can do it again, no problem." She turned back and shot the steel block again. She was actually denting it! "Wow, that's so cool!"

Cyclops shook his head. "I guess it was the brain damage after all. I'm happy for you, though – at least you won't have to wear glasses all the time."

"Wait, you mean you can't switch them off?"

"I was in an accident as a kid, and the Professor thinks that might have damaged the part of my brain that lets me control the force beams. I thought it might be the nature of the power, but I guess he wins that argument."

"You'll probably have to give him your fries for a whole week for that one." Gwen patted his arm. 

Cyclops shook his head. "I probably will."

***

Outside, the secret base of the X-Men turned out to be some giant mansion out in the countryside. 

"Wow," Gwen said, resting in buff Gwen's arms. "This place is amazing. I didn't know you guys lived in an actual mansion."

"It would probably be better not to. We single-handedly keep the local glaziers in business," Storm said, ruefully. 

"You were right, I do feel a little better outside. But it's weird being you. It's hard to, um, how to describe it, hard to know where my edges are. It's not like seeing and hearing things. It feels that I'm part of the air and the water in the air and the wind…"

"That's exactly how it is for me," Storm agreed. 

"Should I put her down?" buff Gwen asked. 

"Yes, put me down, but can I lean on you?"

"Sure!"

Her feet on the ground, Gwen felt the air press and shift over her skin. It was very strange, feeling not merely the clouds in the sky, but all the little changes in pressure and temperature and texture absolutely everywhere. The sky was alive, and part of Gwen, and she was part of it. 

"How do you live with this, Storm? It's so enormous. And every little movement I make changes everything." Gwen raised one hand and followed the ripples through the air, everything cascading outwards from her simple gesture.

"Call me Ororo, please. And it took a long time to learn even the most basic things about my gifts. In the meantime, I would simply say to relax and let the weather flow through you. Change nothing, even if you think it's for the best. I was only a young girl, and I thought bringing rain to my late mother's village would be helping them. I didn't realise that it meant that rain wasn't falling somewhere else."

Buff Gwen frowned. "But you made that tornado that knocked Magneto down, and you shot lightning! And you fly!"

"Yes, after years of observing how such things affect the atmosphere. I am able to act with minimal disruption to the environment, but I must acknowledge that there is still disruption."

"We disrupt the environment by being in it, though," Gwen said, waving her arm again and feeling the changes. 

"This is true, so it's important to keep our impact as small as possible. Magneto's power is very disruptive, and yet as connected to the Earth as mine is. I wish he could see things this way."

Gwen nodded. "Yeah. At least he didn't kill anyone today."

Ororo took her arm. "Come further away from the house. We can observe together and start to understand how to move without causing harm."

Buff Gwen cleared her throat. "Uh, would it be possible to get some clothes? I don't feel cold or anything, but if there'll be stray breezes, I don't want my butt hanging out."

"Yes, of course! I have some kaftans that should be loose enough to fit you." 

***

Dressed in a grey tracksuit with a blue X on them, Gwen felt ready to start throwing backflips. The sports bra helped, too. She wondered whose it had been: it definitely wasn't Storm's size. 

Gwen only ever felt this energetic when she was drumming, but now it was buzzing through her all the time. She jumped and rolled and flipped and it was like drumming the world with her whole body as the drumsticks. 

"It's fun to be you!" she told Nightcrawler.

He laughed and cartwheeled ahead of her. "It is, liebling, but it's also dangerous."

"Because people are scared of your appearance? You should get them to pat you, you're a super soft plushy kitten!" She patted her own arm in fascination.

"Thank you! But no, I meant because of the teleporting. Cyclops has suggested that I take you to the Danger Room, where there are some safeguards, and help you understand how it works."

"Oh, is that the 'bamf' kind of noise? And the smell? I'm not sure if I want to do that."

Nightcrawler smiled. He had a lovely smile, if toothy. "And if everything goes well and we fix up this problem, you probably won't need to. But plans have a way of going horribly wrong around here, and I wouldn't want you to be startled and teleport halfway through a wall."

Gwen winced. "Halfway doesn't sound great."

"Indeed, it could prove fatal. The safest thing to do is to only teleport where you can see an empty space ahead."

"Oh! That's why you appeared above Magneto's head and then dropped onto his shoulders. If you appeared right there, he might have moved his head or something."

Nightcrawler looked horrified. "I do not want to merge with part of somebody's head, thank you very much. People are unpredictable, even to themselves, so it's best to leave some space."

"You're telling me! This morning there was only one of me. And I was pink. Do you think the Professor will be able to turn us back?"

"I hope so," Nightcrawler said, and he sounded sincere. "Still, until then, come to the Danger Room! I will show you how to teleport safely and then we can play on the trapeze!"

"Sounds awesome!"

***

Ororo's beautifully patterned cotton kaftan came to barely knee-length on Gwen, but it easily fit over her muscled shoulders. That was a relief, because for all it was exciting to be suddenly buff without having had to work for it, she was much stronger than before and kept feeling that she was about to break something, or at least rip the hospital gown. The kaftan was looser than the hospital gown, and felt a lot safer. The Gwen with Storm's powers had got a little twitchy being inside, even in Ororo's attic room, so they'd all gone outside again. 

"Does the air pressure inside feel very different to outside?" she asked.

"Yeah, it does. It's all fractured and broken. Like if you go to look at a photo and it's one of those 3D pictures instead. It's really difficult."

Ororo held both Gwens' hands. "You will get used to it. Fortunately for me, I had already left Cairo by the time my gift manifested, and there were few large buildings in the part of Kenya where I went to live. Maybe you should start with something smaller: let's stand by the wall and you can feel how the air interacts with that."

Gwen held up her big hands. "Do you think I can change into metal?"

"I have no doubt that you can. Piotr is quite shy, but I could ask him to help you, if you wish?"

"No, it's more that…I can feel the metal, and now it's feeling weird, sort of vibrating a little bit. Like when you're on the subway, you know?"

Ororo looked at her in surprise. "And this feeling was not present before?"

"No, it started just now."

"Go inside, right now." When the two Gwens didn't move, Ororo raised her voice. "Now!"

Gwen grabbed the shorter Gwen's hand and the two of them ran inside. Ororo must have contacted the rest of the X-Men somehow, because they were all racing towards the front garden. 

Cyclops stopped by them for a moment and pointed at the clawed Gwen on the stairs. "Go with that Gwen, she knows where's safe."

Blue Gwen and the no-longer blindfolded Gwen ran up, following in the X-Men's wake. 

"Wow, I can see why they blindfolded you! Your eyes are glowing red!"

"Is it cool or creepy?"

"Definitely cool."

The other Gwens agreed. 

Clawed Gwen gestured for them all to follow her. "They give the rooms crazy names here. There's a War Room, and that's where they want us to go."

"I guess it goes with the Danger Room," red-eyed Gwen shrugged, and they all went upstairs to this War Room.

***

Once they reached it, it made sense why the X-Men had told them to hide out there. It must be pretty close to the centre of the building – Gwen put her arm around Storm Gwen, who was again very uncomfortable – and it had cameras monitoring the mansion, with several screens so they could watch what was going on outside.

Outside on the front lawn, Magneto had descended from the sky. Colossus remained at the rear, this time, and hadn't changed into his metal form. He was rubbing at his arms as if he was cold, which he might well be in that minimal costume, but Gwen thought that maybe he was feeling Magneto's approach in his bones, as she apparently had. Wolverine was nowhere in sight. 

The Professor was out there with the X-Men, which Gwen thought was very brave of him. Then again, he was a telepath, so maybe he could defend himself as well as anyone else. 

The cameras either weren't wired for sound or it hadn't been switched on, because they couldn't work out what Magneto and the Professor were saying to each other, but suddenly all the X-Men collapsed to the ground. 

"Oh my god!" all the Gwens chorused in shock. 

Wolverine had been up one of the big oak trees behind Magneto and launched a mighty leap into the air, claws extended, but he didn't make it anywhere near the supervillain. Magneto cast him away with an easy wave of his hand and slammed him into the tree's solid truck. Wolverine collapsed, too. 

Magneto seemed to be talking again, or at least declaiming, because they could see his mouth moving even under the helmet. 

"He makes a lot of speeches," clawed Gwen said, grumpily. "Now what's he doing?"

Magneto was floating serenely towards the mansion. He held out a hand, staring directly into one of the cameras, then all the screens went black.

Storm Gwen's hair was gently moving again. "Do you think he's coming for us?"

"How did he know where the X-Men live, anyway?" blue Gwen muttered. "Or, maybe he tracked us here?"

"We've got to stop him!" clawed Gwen declared. "I don't know how, but the X-Men were taking care of us, and now he's zapped them all!"

"I don't even have a bra on, how am I meant to fight a supervillain?" Red-eyed Gwen didn't sound too enthusiastic. 

Clawed Gwen wasn't giving up. "There were bras in the change room, but all right, I don't think we should be run out there to fight a supervillain who took out the X-Men single-handedly. We need a plan."

"Bras first," buff Gwen declared. 

"Also, that's downstairs, so it will buy us more time," blue Gwen agreed. 

They all hurried out of the War Room and into the elevator. 

"We do have one big advantage," blue Gwen continued, "Which is that he probably doesn't know about us. He probably thinks there's only a single Gwen here."

"That's a good point," clawed Gwen agreed as they went into the changeroom.

"And you'll be completely useless fighting him, so you should be the bait." Buff Gwen started throwing open lockers, searching for more sensible clothing, maybe even something that would protect them against Magneto. 

"Hey, there's X-Men costumes here!" red-eyed Gwen said, pulling some out. "I have no idea what they're made of, but they feel tough. And I don't think they're metal."

"None of those will fit me. Or you," buff Gwen said to blue Gwen. "Maybe we should try the men's changeroom."

It still felt weird to open the door to the men's locker room and creep in, but that was social conditioning, something Gwen always tried hard to shake off. She quickly went through the lockers and found one of Nightcrawler's outfits and one of Colossus'. 

"Uh, there's not very much fabric in that," blue Gwen pointed out. 

Buff Gwen held it up. It was going to have hella side-boob. "I guess I can wear the kaftan over the top? Hey, there's Cyclops and Wolverine outfits here, too."

They took the outfits to the women's changeroom and quickly got dressed. Although they weren't exactly the same size as their original counterparts, the fabric was all very stretchy and clingy, and fit them well. Gwen had never been quite sure why all the superheroes wore costumes – the ones without masks, anyway – but as it turned out, it did impart confidence, and it made it easy to tell who was who in a big group of people. 

Clawed Gwen cleared her throat. "Okay, so I'm the bait. That's cool, but then what are you going to do when you've lured him somewhere?"

Blue Gwen, currently perched on a locker, was ready with a plan. "Let's use code names, otherwise it'll be 'Gwen, Gwen, Gwen' all the time. Wolverine, you lure him into the upstairs hall by the War Room, then Colossus and Cyclops, you pummel him for distraction, then Storm and I will wrap him in that long hall runner. He had a lot of problems flying when he couldn't see, at Oscorp, so I think if he wrap him up he'll be trapped."

"And I hope by then the X-Men are back in action!" buff Gwen, Colossus, added, adjusting her uniform under the kaftan. It wasn't a very comfortable costume, though she did admire the tall red boots. 

They crept upstairs, Wolverine leading the way, not using the elevator in case Magneto sensed it coming. 

"Girls! Come out, I'm not going to hurt you!" he yelled, somewhere upstairs. 

"Crap, he does know about us," Wolverine said, but she still bravely ran up the stairs to get ahead of the group. 

Storm was looking happier upstairs, even though they were in more danger here. "He must have seen us split into five at Oscorp. Damn."

"But why? Why would he want to find some random teenage girl?" Nightcrawler bounded along, then directed them to the War Room corridor, and they took up position in various doorways near the hall rug.

Colossus thought about it. "What if he didn't get the stuff he was after? And he thinks the X-Men have it, or we do?"

"Aaaah!" came Wolverine's voice down the stairs, and she went flying past. Magneto must have thrown her. So much for not wanting to hurt them. 

Colossus was about to call out to her to see if she was okay, but remembered that they were meant to be setting up an ambush. A moment later, Wolverine came running around the corner anyway, no worse for wear. 

"Yeah, come and get me then!" she yelled defiantly, and ran into the hallway where they'd set their trap.

"Young woman, I have no wish to hurt you, but if you insist on…" Magneto's current speech was interrupted by Colossus hurling herself bodily at him. She vaguely remembered from self-defence that she should go for the nose or the groin, but he seemed to be well-armoured, so she relied on her size and speed to make her attack. He side-stepped her, pretty fast for an old guy, and used her own momentum to push her into a wall with a plaster-rattling crunch.

Cyclops Gwen took over, sending a blast right over Magneto's head. She wasn't quite game to actually shoot him, considering how she had dented that steel block, but she could certainly threaten him. 

"You missed!" he declared, and she rather wished she had shot him. Nonetheless, he strode up the corridor towards her, just as Nightcrawler had planned. She backed up, trying to look scared, to keep him coming forward. 

Unfortunately, her scared expression must have been too effective, because he then stopped short of the hall rug. "Gwen, I promise that I'm not trying to hurt you, if you'll cease your attacks for a moment." The shaking of the metal light fixtures made this promise seem rather unlikely. 

Nightcrawler grabbed the end of the rug and went to pull it up, but the rug didn't move. 

"Crap, it's nailed down!"

"Duh, guy in a wheelchair, of course it is!" Cyclops realised, and Magneto reached out to grab her arm.

Storm stepped forward, determination in her face despite being stuck in a narrow corridor with no view of the outside. "That's enough!" 

Cyclops ducked, and Magneto's grab missed. Storm raised her hands and the rug billowed upwards, pulling free of the nails with a loud ripping noise. 

Nightcrawler screwed up her face in concentration and reappeared in mid-air a few feet behind Magneto. The rug was flung forward in a gust of wind and Nightcrawler caught one flapping end, swinging it forward to wrap up Magneto. Colossus, Cyclops and Wolverine joined in, passing the long rug around and around until Magneto was totally wrapped up and immobilised. He did manage to shove Wolverine into the wall with his powers, but now that he was blindfolded, he stopped his struggles. 

"You said you wouldn't fight anyone!" came another voice from the stairs. "I'm so sorry, he made me stay back then started fighting!"

Magneto replied, but his voice was muffled by the rug.

All the Gwens turned from Magneto's prone form to see another Gwen, this one in a helmet and purple and red costume identical to Magneto's. She removed the helmet and tucked it under her arm. 

"Sorry about the lights flickering – I'm still having trouble controlling this."

"You're another Gwen!" Nightcrawler leapt over Magneto's body and ran over to her.

"Yeah, Magneto thought I had identical sisters for a while, but I eventually managed to explain that there was only one of me, at least up to the explosion."

Everyone came over to hug her. Cyclops sounded worried. "Lucky he saw the rest of us appear, or you wouldn't have known there was a whole team of us. You might have been stuck with Magneto forever!"

"Hey, let me go," Wolverine told her, stuck in the hug. 

"Oops, sorry. You have metal in you!"

"No kidding! It weighs a ton!"

"Anyway, once I explained that I didn't have magnetic powers before the explosion, he said he'd bring me to the X-Men's base because the other versions of me would probably be here. I've brought the stuff Magneto stole from Oscorp, in case that has something to do with it. And he didn't want them showing up at his base. I had to promise he can have the Oscorp stuff back, though."

Colossus shook her head. "I can't believe they all know each other's addresses."

"It must be convenient when they want to have a fight, though," Storm mused.

The Professor's mental voice rang out in their heads. It sounded exactly the same as his regular voice. "Miss Stacy! Get away from Magneto at once! He's dangerous!"

"Thank you for the distraction." Magneto leapt up, the rug that had tied him cut in half by a stray nail reshaped into a blade. "If everyone is quite done attacking me?"

"Sorry," Cyclops said, politely. "You did knock out the X-Men."

"Wolverine was attempting to ambush me. A foolish endeavour. Now, I believe that with the assistance of Storm – not you, Miss Stacy, the original – we should be able to set things right."

They all trooped out to the front lawn, where the cranky-looking X-Men were waiting. 

"This better not be a trick, Bucket-head," the real Wolverine snarled. 

The Gwens weren't sure to whom he was referring, but it was Magneto, whose helmet was indeed bucket-like, now that Wolverine had pointed it out. "I assure you, I am not enjoying the presence of a teenage girl doppelganger any more than you are."

Storm floated into the air a little way, surveying the scene. "Gwens, you should all group together here, and Magneto, you were about a metre away, with the Oscorp case in between you. If you would move out of the way, Professor, we will have recreated the scene. Are you ready to deflect my lightning, Magneto?"

"Please, begin."

Storm crackled with energy, rising up further, and a bolt flashed in the air. Magneto glowed blue, as he had as Oscorp, and the bolt sputtered. This time, Gwen saw the Oscorp box glow in response, then she felt a very peculiar sensation, stretched and compressed all at the same time. 

***

Gwen must have passed out for a moment, because she woke up face down on the lawn, with the X-Men all around her. 

"Ugh. How many of me are there?" She tried to sit up, but got caught in her multiple layers of clothing. Her Magneto helmet had fallen to the ground.

Cyclops helped her sit. "Just the one, Miss Stacy. What do you remember?"

"Everything! Wow, that's weird, remembering seeing myself, and what I was thinking about myself while I was doing it."

"Your mind will adjust swiftly," the Professor told her. "It's a common experience for telepaths."

Gwen tried to struggle to her feet but decided it would be easier to shed some extra clothing first. The Colossus outfit and kaftan were hanging off her, but the Nightcrawler costume had burst at the seams. With Ororo's help, she pulled various pieces of fabric free until she was down to bits of the Cyclops and Storm costumes. 

"These are great boots, Ororo."

"You are welcome to keep them as a souvenir of your adventures today. I want you to remember this." She turned and glared at the Professor. Whatever silent conversation they were having was eventually resolved in Ororo's favour, and the Professor gave her a look that Gwen could clearly interpret as identical to one of her dad's: on your own head be it.

Ororo helped her to her feet. "Finish getting changed inside, then you should have something to eat before we take you home."

"Aren't you worried that I'll spill your secrets? I won't, though."

She glared at the Professor again. "No, truly, I'm not concerned. I think you're a trustworthy person who knows the difficulties that mutants go through, and wouldn't want to do us harm. You tried to help us against Magneto, even though you had only had these abilities for a few hours."

Gwen laughed. "You should have seen his face when I got him with the rug! It was kind of nice to work with myself, really. I was cooperative!"

"It's fortunate we had six of you, not six of Wolverine!"

***

Although it would have seemed more fitting for the X-Men to fly her back to New York under their own mutant power, or maybe in a fancy X-Jet, they actually drove her in a car. A very nice car, the kind that Gwen's dad would tut at and say it was too good for the city, but still just a car. They pulled up outside her house and Cyclops, now wearing red glasses rather than his visor, gave her a phone number. 

"Here, just in case there's any lasting side-effects."

"Thanks, guys. It could have been a terrible day and instead it was kind of cool." Impulsively, she reached forward and hugged Ororo, who returned her embrace warmly. 

Inside, the house was quiet – her dad wasn't home yet. There was a note stuck on the fridge: "Hey, Gwen. Probably an all-nighter for me – get yourself dinner and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Scary stuff takes it out of you! Love, Dad." A twenty dollar note was stuck behind it. 

Gwen grinned. Lucky there was only one of her – she didn't think she could have fed six Gwens on $20. She texted Peter. 

_Dude how are you?_

A reply came quickly. 

_Had big allergic reaction on arm, gross. Why didn't you answer your phone all afternoon?_

Gwen thought quickly. _Dad had it by accident, sorry._

_LOL he made you leave fast_

She was slightly impressed and slightly appalled at the Professor's quick telepathic fix. That little spat between Ororo and the Professor must have been to stop him brainwashing her as well. Creepy. 

_You know my dad doesn't like super power stuff._

There was a short pause before Peter replied. 

_Yeah true. Got to go bye_

She had been going to ask how everyone else was, but Peter must have something to do. Aunt May kept him pretty busy. 

Gwen sat idly on the sofa, flicking through Facebook to see who'd ended up in hospital, feeling edgy. She really missed having herself to talk to, even if she had run the risk of teleporting into a wall, or getting claustrophobic, and those metal bones had been tiring. She texted again,

_Hey MJ! You might not be an extra me but you're the next best thing. Wanna rehearse tonight?_

Mary Jane sent back a picture of herself with a dressing over her eyebrow. She must have been hit at Oscorp. _What do you mean next best??? Get over here, I won't let a supervillain invasion stop us!_

Gwen grinned. She might not be a multiple bodied superhero anymore, but she was a kickass drummer with kickass friends, and she wasn't going to let a supervillain get in the way of that!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to SA for the beta and to everyone who nominated the Gwens!


End file.
